Distant View
by Chikku-Chikku
Summary: Starscream watches as Crystal City is destroyed... because of him. Shattered Glass verse.


**A/N:** Crystal City sounds like a beautiful place, so I tried to make its demise sound just as beautiful. Another theme, with much love for SG Starscream.

I don't know if Crystal City is _actually_ Starscream's hometown, but I'm just assuming it is (forgive me if it's wrong!) Also, the format in this story is a bit... meh. I wasn't exactly sure how else to arrange it, so my apologies. C':

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><p><strong>Distant View<strong>

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><p>From a distance, Starscream can see every piece of Crystal City crumble to the ground.<p>

Beautiful towers of kaleidoscopic colors collapse to dirt as streets over thousands of vorns old disintegrate into nothing but ash. Buildings and stores alike are ripped asunder, shot down and melted into blobs as dead as the bodies of the Cybertronians once walking within them. Curtains of flames stretch shadowy fingers around the once-grand, bustling metropolitan, its brilliant lightshow clashing with the mellowed silver of the city's tincture. Nothing can be heard but a loud siren of despair, medics rushing to save what has already been lost–_far long gone, far too late_–calling out for help in the midst of an endless, eternal perdition.

A lovely, twinkling silver world of _hell_.

"And it's me to blame."

The words taste so emotionless yet rough coming from his mouth, voice barely a soft whisper in the dead of night. He feels a coldness settle inside of his spark. The truth is undeniable as guilt threatens to choke him into stasis lock, the murder's message as clear as the carnage before his optics...

"This is all my fault."

~.

Even now, Starscream can imagine that insane mech laughing and laughing from the safety of his own home, without a care in the world for the loss of another's sparkling hometown... or of another's life.

"Fool," Starscream can't help but snarl at the memory of that mech, of his cold optics and sly smirk.

_"My name is Optimus Prime. You may know me as the grand leader of the Autobots..."_

His fists clench tight as hot rage courses throughout his body. "Grand leader, my aft."

_"I am on a quest to free this Primus-forsaken world from the tyrannical hands of those with far lesser abilities, who have far less _rights_, to run it. The rewards will be tremendous and gratifying, as well as glorifying. Together, the Autobots shall conquer and redeem what is rightfully ours to claim."_

"You were nothing but a fool."

__"I've heard so many great things about you, Starscream, the rumors of you being one of the most brilliant scientific engineer on Cybertron not withstanding. __We Autobots could use someone with these notable talents in our ranks... especially a mech whose high caliber would place him in the highest echelon of fighter jets.  
><em>_

__I hope you will accept my offer to join the Autobots. It would be an honor to have you with us."__

"An honor, huh...?"

_"However, I must warn you that although you are free to choose and free to follow me, as every sentient being is, refusal means your utmost destruction..."_

The words ring in his mind and Starscream can't help but question now, as he casts his gaze around to take in the complete and utter destruction of Crystal City, who the fool really is.

_"So w_ill you join me then, Starscream? Or will you refuse, and forever regret your choice?_"_

He doesn't tear his gaze from his beloved city–at a structure once so beautiful and proud, now torn into shreds and smothering smoke–as he fiercely closes his optics.

_No_.

Starscream represses those haunting, nagging doubts with the heaviest push of his mind, sealing them away behind a deep, clear conscience that murderers like Optimus Prime had never been born with.

_No, not him._

He wasn't the fool. He was nobody's fool.

~.

From a distance, Starscream can hear the sounds of screaming, dying metal. The vibrations are loud enough to shake and shudder his body; the varying mixtures of sobs powerful enough to damage his audios into utter oblivion. Charred parts of hundreds of mechs clang in a collective symphony of screeches, their movements and voices rising higher and higher in pitch until there is no distinguishing between any one individual. There is only unity; one long, endless resonance of a ghostly chorus set forever on an infinite rewind within an infinite loop of a tune. Timeless, boundless, and trapped forever.

"And it's all my fault."

Starscream falls to his knees and lowers his head.

"My fault..." he murmurs, "to _fix_."

Though his vision is blurred by tears, Starscream's optics remain strong as he places his servos before the ground and begs for forgiveness. He extends his spark out to touch the souls suffering because of his mistake, trying to offer them one last breath of comfort before the world slipped away from their very pedes.

And, as the future spins rapidly out of orbit and the present seems more like the front door of Unicron's house than anything else, Starscream repeats the same words he uttered only three solar cycles earlier. The ones that not only completely destroyed his hometown and sealed his fate, but also brought a small yet glorifying hope in his spark of redemption...

_"No. __I will never join the Autobots."_

He knows that he must begin with nothing, starting exactly from nowhere. He knows that it may be impossible, that he may even die in the process, and suffer more than he can ever imagine.

But one day, the jet is sure his beloved Crystal City will be restored again.

"Restored to paradise..." Starscream murmurs.

_Into a lovely, twinkling silver land of paradise._


End file.
